Cuccinelli: McAuliffe Plans Put Virginia Finance at Risk

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, has drawn a sharp contrast between his stance on Obamacare and that of his challenger, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, in a final bid to drum up votes ahead of the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election.

"I was the first attorney general in the nation to file suit against the law because I believed, and still believe, that it was unconstitutional and contrary to our first principles of limited government and individual freedom," Cuccinelli wrote in the National Review Friday.

"My opponent strongly supported the passage of Obamacare and even believed that it didn't go far enough. He wanted Congress to pass a public option, which would ultimately have led to a government takeover of our health care system."

Cuccinelli maintained that while the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website has sparked a nationwide debate, Virginians need to worry about the real impact of the law.

"Doctors and health-care professionals from around the state have told me the same thing: Obamacare is already driving up the cost of health care, limiting people's choice of doctors and insurance plans, and reducing access to quality care," he said.

"We are already seeing the harmful effects this law is having on our economy as workers see their wages and hours cut. Major Virginia employers, such as the Fairfax Water Authority, have announced plans to drop employee health coverage."

Cuccinelli also attacked McAuliffe for wanting to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. "For McAuliffe, expanding Medicaid is just a vehicle to implement his far-left agenda, even if it means putting hard-working Virginians' health insurance at risk and putting the future of the state' finances into jeopardy," he wrote.

"Virginians who oppose Obamacare should send a message to Washington by supporting me in this election . . . As governor, I will do everything in my power to stop the implementation of Obamacare and oppose the Medicaid expansion."

But in the final days before the election, frontrunner McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the Clintons and other Democrats, is vastly outraising Cuccinelli, especially from companies with legislative interests in Richmond, reports the Washington Post.

For the two weeks before the election, Virginia law requires candidates to report all large donations within a day. On Wednesday, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, McAuliffe reported contributions of $510,000, with more than half that total coming from the state Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, and a couple of labor unions.

For the same day, Cuccinelli reported raising just $12,000 — roughly 1/50th of the amount McAuliffe took in. In the race overall, McAuliffe has now raised more than $35 million, according to the Washington Post, nearly double Cuccinelli’s total.